


Not Just A Ring

by syriala



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Wedding Rings, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 18:11:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15125078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syriala/pseuds/syriala
Summary: “It’s just a ring,” he eventually said, just as Peter started to fear Stiles would vibrate out of his skin, and pulled the ring out from under his shirt.On first glance it could have been just a ring, but Peter knew the design of that ring intimately, and he couldn’t help but touch his thumb to his own ring.It was the same.“Wedding ring,” Stiles mumbled under his breath and his gaze fell on Peter, clearly putting the same puzzle pieces together that Peter had just seconds ago.





	Not Just A Ring

**Author's Note:**

> The new gifs from The Domestics continue to give me all the feelings. I mean. There's one with a [wedding ring](http://bloody-bee-tea.tumblr.com/post/175416498926/sterekfanforever-hoechlin-those-dorky-glasses). How do you expect me to deal with that.

Derek stared through the window at his uncle. The doctors had told him and Laura that Peter needed to be in isolation for now, preventing infection to his extensive burn wounds, and even though Laura and Derek knew that Peter couldn’t catch an infection, they had to stay outside.

Laura had left the hospital a few hours before, stating she couldn’t stand seeing Peter like that, but Derek couldn’t bring himself to leave.

His hand closed around the rings he still, always, had in his pocket and he felt tears well up again. Derek had waited too long, carrying them around with him for almost six months instead of just giving one to Peter, telling him how he really felt, and now it was most likely too late.

Peter was so badly injured the doctors didn’t expect him to live through the next few days, and even knowing that he could endure so much more than a human thanks to his werewolf healing, it was a scary thought.

Derek’s hand clenched around the rings, before he forcefully loosened his grip again. He didn’t want to dent them after all.

Derek could see Peter clearly through the window and he saw his uninjured side, the hand that wasn’t burned and Derek thought maybe he waited too long already, but he could at least give the ring to Peter now. Let him know that Derek was still there, still waiting for him. That Peter had something to come back to.

Derek looked around, carefully checking if someone was paying any attention to him, but no one was there, and so Derek quickly ducked into his uncle’s room.

The smell of burned flesh was almost too much for Derek, but he breathed through his mouth, determined to see this through now.

He walked over to Peter, carefully reaching out for his unburned hand and he couldn’t help the small sob that escaped him when he made contact. He tried to take some pain from Peter, but it soon became too much for him, the pain almost overwhelming him. He didn’t dare to think about how much stronger it must be for Peter.

Peter was warm, still so warm to the touch, but he was limp and unresponsive. Derek sobbed again and pressed Peter’s hand to his forehead for a second, before he managed to get himself back under control.

“I got you something,” he softly said, trying to keep the tears at bay. “I meant to give it to you earlier, but I was afraid,” Derek admitted. “But you can have it now, and remember that I will always wait for you, that I’ll be always there for you.”

Derek fished the rings out of his pocket and slipped one on Peter’s finger.

“There. Now everyone knows that you have someone who is waiting for you, that you belong to someone,” Derek whispered and put his own ring on. “I love you, Peter,” he muttered, for the first time not afraid to say it out loud.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he promised Peter, pressing a lingering kiss to the back of Peter’s hand and then quickly and silently slipped back out of the room, feeling lighter now despite everything that had happened.

Peter was still there after all.

When Derek came back to the motel he and Laura were staying in, Laura was already sitting on packed bags.

“What?” was all Derek managed to ask, throat closing up on him, because he knew that this meant.

They were leaving.

“We have to go,” Laura said and confirmed Derek’s fears.

“No! What about Peter?” he asked, but Laura shook her head.

“He’s too hurt to be moved and we can’t stay here. It’s dangerous. We’ll get him once he’s healed up a bit,” she said, as if it was already decided and Derek hated her in that second.

“It’s too dangerous for us but you want to leave Peter behind?” he asked, desperate to make her see reason.

“We have no choice!” Laura yelled at him and Derek instinctively bared his neck for her when her eyes flashed red.

The discussion was really short after that, and an hour later they were on the road, leaving Peter behind, hurt and without defenses. Derek was sure he would never forgive Laura for that.

~*~*~

When Peter woke up, after the coma and the madness of the alpha power, after dying, he felt sane and in complete control of his mind and body for the first time since the house had burned down around him.

Everything that had happened between the fire and now felt like a dream to him; too blurry and confusing to understand everything but just clear enough to let him know he had majorly fucked up.

It took him a few weeks to get everything in order, buying an apartment and unfreezing his accounts, and he blamed all of that for the fact that he only noticed the ring on his hand after three weeks.

Peter was pretty sure he hadn’t been married before the fire, that there was no spouse of his in the house who burned to death, but just in case he checked the records for the fire. There were only members of the family listed, just like Peter had suspected.

He frowned down at the ring, weight already familiar to him, and he couldn’t quite bring himself to take it off. Peter sniffed at it, but he wasn’t surprised when it only held his smells; he had been through too much for the ring to still smell like anyone else but him.

Peter briefly thought that maybe Jennifer, his nurse, had slipped the ring on him; she had been a whole new kind of horror for him, controlling and manipulative as she had been, but it felt wrong.

There was the faint memory of someone holding his hand, kissing the back of it, and speaking to him, before a cold weight settled on his finger, and whoever it had been, they had been too soft spoken, too gentle to be Jennifer.

Peter had tried once, to take the ring off, to go about his day without the familiar weight, but it unsettled him in a way he couldn’t explain. As soon as he was back home, he put it back on and immediately felt calmer.

Peter was surprised none of the kids Derek liked to call pack had mentioned the ring yet, though he was sure at least Stiles had questions. He was just glad Stiles had refrained from asking them so far, because Peter wasn’t sure he had answers.

He knew what he wanted the answers to be, knew that there was only one person out there who he would ever consider wearing a wedding ring for, but he also knew that it would likely never happen.

Especially not after everything that had happened between him and Derek.

But despite all of that, Derek was still there, still welcomed Peter into his home, kept him at his side, and something in Peter ached at that. He wasn’t sure he still deserved that, but he knew that he never wanted to find out who he was without Derek at his side, trusting him.

Peter was lounging on the couch, watching Derek interact with his pack, when Stiles suddenly spoke up.

“So, Derek, I’m going to ask, because we’ve all been wondering and the chance of you tearing my throat out with your teeth has somewhat diminished,” Stiles rambled, and Peter suppressed a smile when Derek sighed.

“Just ask, Stiles,” he said, and Stiles nodded once, as if he was reassuring himself that he would do this.

“What is on that necklace you’re always wearing?” he finally asked and now that caught Peter’s attention, because it was something he wanted to know himself.

Derek’s eyes quickly darted to Peter, before he looked down at his hands.

“It’s not really a secret,” he started, but he seemed strangely hesitant to reveal whatever pendant was on the necklace.

“It’s just a ring,” he eventually said, just as Peter started to fear Stiles would vibrate out of his skin, and pulled the ring out from under his shirt.

On first glance it could have been _just a ring_ , but Peter knew the design of that ring intimately, and he couldn’t help but touch his thumb to his own ring.

It was the same.

“Wedding ring,” Stiles mumbled under his breath and his gaze fell on Peter, clearly putting the same puzzle pieces together that Peter had just seconds ago.

Peter was too surprised, too happy, to tell Stiles to mind his own business, but something must have translated through his face anyway, because Stiles was suddenly scrambling up.

“I think it’s time we leave,” he said to the rest of the pack, ushering them out of the loft without caring for their protests.

Derek wasn’t looking at Peter, avoiding his eyes by looking at the floor, and Peter wouldn’t have it.

He stood up and walked over to Derek, reaching out to gently touch the ring still resting on Derek’s chest.

“I had hoped it was you,” he said, smiling at Derek when he finally raised his gaze and looked at Peter.

“I couldn’t remember where it came from, had only a vague memory of someone putting it on me, but I always hoped it was you,” he admitted, and Derek smiled at him, like he used to, wide and happy, eyes sparkling.

“Is that why you’re still wearing it?” Derek asked him, and Peter nodded as he took the necklace off Derek.

He unclasped it, sliding the ring off the chain and then held it out in question. Derek immediately offered his hand and Peter slipped the ring on.

“Laura made fun of me once, for wearing it,” Derek explained. “So I put it on a necklace. She made me break my promise, that I would always be there for you, and I couldn’t let her ruin this too,” he quietly finished, and Peter pulled him closer, resting their foreheads together.

Everything after that was easy.

Peter sold his apartment, moving in with Derek in less than a week. They both had quietly feared that it would be strange, that they were moving too fast, but in the end, it only felt right, like a long missing piece had finally found its way home.

They fitted together so well, Peter sometimes was afraid it was all a dream, that he was still in the coma and only making this up, because nothing could be this good. Derek was a constant presence at his side, always in reach, always smiling at Peter, but now Peter wasn’t too afraid to reach out and pull him close, nuzzle his cheek or press kisses all over his face.

Derek leaned into the contact easily, returning every kiss he got, and Peter delighted in the knowledge that they must both reek of the other.

Every time he caught a glimpse of the ring on Derek’s hand he felt overcome with love and he saw it often, Derek now proudly wearing it always and whenever he reached to push his hair back, it caught the light, as if it wanted to remind Peter that this was real, and Peter’s eyes were always unfailingly drawn to it.

If the pack noticed the change in their relationship, they didn’t let on, and Peter was inclined to believe that they were just that unobservant, but he was happy to leave them in the dark.

This was only for them.

The only exception, of course, was Stiles. He watched them with knowing eyes, but he never called attention to them.

His only admittance that he knew about their relationship was a quietly whispered “I’m happy for you,” right before he ran out of the loft after the rest of the pack.

Derek was suddenly there, draping himself over Peter’s back and nosing at his neck.

“I’m happy for us, too,” he breathed against Peter’s skin, and Peter shuddered under him.

Peter grabbed for Derek’s hand, raising it to press a kiss to his ring, before turning his head and kissing Derek.

“I am too,” he gave back, and he meant it with everything he was.

If this was the outcome, he would gladly go through everything he had endured again.

Derek was more than worth it.


End file.
